Rating: 
Summary: Simply told, beautifully written and tragic as the Devil
Review: "Water, Carry Me" allows one to experience vicariously what life must be like in Ireland. Much what happens to Una seems as commonplace as life anywhere else yet the threat of violence hangs over the story like a pall. The sense of menace is always there, usually simmering in the background but sometimes bursting forth with brutal ferocity. This is a story that you won't want to put down and that you will be sorry to see end.
Rating: 
Summary: Not your average love story
Review: "Water, Carry Me" is a touching but unsettling look at life in the violent blood-soaked and fear-shrouded land of Ireland. Una Moss is orphaned and reared by a crochety old grandfather with IRA leanings. Una is able to avoid the political insanity that rocks her country. She matures into a sensible, intelligent medical student, who, though sitting on a large trust fund, lives humbly and seriously. The bookish and plain Una is swept off her feet by a handsome and charming draughtsman, Aidan Ferrel. Una is cautious, but Aidan's persistent pursuit dissolves all her doubts and insecurities. She glories in his attention and quickly begins to plan a future with "her Aidan", her "best boy." Of course, there are problems. Una weathers the ups and downs of her girlfriends and their love lives. She slowly unfolds the truth surrounding her grandfather, Rawney, and his friends, Mick and Des. Una even witnesses the shocking execution of Des by the IRA. She gradually gets to the truth of her parents' deaths. The details of all of these troubling threads of her life she willingly feeds to Aidan, the Aidan she trusts implicitly. This is a bittersweet love story. The author's note at the end of the book indicates that some of the events were actual occurances, manipulated for fictional purposes. Some of the events are disturbing -- the assassination scene, the police brutality, the love betrayed. As Americans, I'm doubtful that we can understand the violence of Northern Ireland. The story began slowly for me, but built rapidly into an unexpected ending. I rated this book at four stars because of the slow beginning, but would have given it five stars if the beginning had been more interesting. Stick with this one. The ending is worth the read.
Rating:
Summary: Not your average love story
Review: "Water, Carry Me" is a touching but unsettling look at life in the violent blood-soaked and fear-shrouded land of Ireland. Una Moss is orphaned and reared by a crochety old grandfather with IRA leanings. Una is able to avoid the political insanity that rocks her country. She matures into a sensible, intelligent medical student, who, though sitting on a large trust fund, lives humbly and seriously. The bookish and plain Una is swept off her feet by a handsome and charming draughtsman, Aidan Ferrel. Una is cautious, but Aidan's persistent pursuit dissolves all her doubts and insecurities. She glories in his attention and quickly begins to plan a future with "her Aidan", her "best boy." Of course, there are problems. Una weathers the ups and downs of her girlfriends and their love lives. She slowly unfolds the truth surrounding her grandfather, Rawney, and his friends, Mick and Des. Una even witnesses the shocking execution of Des by the IRA. She gradually gets to the truth of her parents' deaths. The details of all of these troubling threads of her life she willingly feeds to Aidan, the Aidan she trusts implicitly. This is a bittersweet love story. The author's note at the end of the book indicates that some of the events were actual occurances, manipulated for fictional purposes. Some of the events are disturbing -- the assassination scene, the police brutality, the love betrayed. As Americans, I'm doubtful that we can understand the violence of Northern Ireland. The story began slowly for me, but built rapidly into an unexpected ending. I rated this book at four stars because of the slow beginning, but would have given it five stars if the beginning had been more interesting. Stick with this one. The ending is worth the read.
Rating:
Summary: Thomas Moran is a Literary Chameleon
Review: A fabulous review in the Washington Post Book World proclaimed Una Moss the 22-year-old Irish narrator of WATER CARRY ME to be "one of the most remarkable characters to grace fiction's pages". I have a two-year-old demanding boy and I need to be enthralled with every little bit of reading I squeeze in at night. So I bought the book. I loved it and I totally believed the novel's beautiful and sad world. And for a short while each night it was also 'my world'- because a part of me always becomes the protagonist, male or female when I am truly seduced by a good writer. This book does that! Una's voice is so genuine I could hear her accent, and the Irish sea town so real that I heard the sounds of everyday life as I read. I heard the violence and the terror, the shouts and the guns of Irish politics. I also heard Una's grandfather Rawney spin his tales. He is so unique I felt I must have met him once. I heard the young lovers in their most intimate moments, I understood their torments and inner secrets. It was real and I was enthralled. I don't normally care about Ireland's 'Troubles' but with this novel I found my precious free time put to good use and my money gladly spent. Thomas Moran is a true great writer.
Rating:
Summary: Thomas Moran is a Literary Chameleon
Review: A fabulous review in the Washington Post Book World proclaimed Una Moss the 22-year-old Irish narrator of WATER CARRY ME to be "one of the most remarkable characters to grace fiction's pages". I have a two-year-old demanding boy and I need to be enthralled with every little bit of reading I squeeze in at night. So I bought the book. I loved it and I totally believed the novel's beautiful and sad world. And for a short while each night it was also 'my world'- because a part of me always becomes the protagonist, male or female when I am truly seduced by a good writer. This book does that! Una's voice is so genuine I could hear her accent, and the Irish sea town so real that I heard the sounds of everyday life as I read. I heard the violence and the terror, the shouts and the guns of Irish politics. I also heard Una's grandfather Rawney spin his tales. He is so unique I felt I must have met him once. I heard the young lovers in their most intimate moments, I understood their torments and inner secrets. It was real and I was enthralled. I don't normally care about Ireland's 'Troubles' but with this novel I found my precious free time put to good use and my money gladly spent. Thomas Moran is a true great writer.
Rating: 
Summary: Understanding the Irish Troubles
Review: All of the readers who've kindly taken the trouble to commenton Water, Carry Me....seem to have comprehended the novelon the several levels on which it operates. Anyone familiar with Ireland -or any society where the politics of terror rule- would understand clearly why Aidan finds himself in the agonizing position of having to choose between the woman he loves and the cause he's been committed to since his teens. Water, Carry Me is authentic in its details of life in Ireland at the time, and as most readers recognized, the characters react realistically to their entrapment in a web which is larger and stronger than they are.
Rating:
Summary: A hauntingly beautiful and heartbreaking story
Review: Although the title may indicate "Water, Carry Me" is a love story, it is, in fact, so much more. Set against the backdrop of a divided Ireland, the novel tracks a few years in the life of Una Moss, the book's fascinating narrator, as she rides the turbulent waves of her early 20's. Orphaned at eight and raised by her grandfather Rawney in Cobh, County Cork, Una is perhaps one of the most interesting and compelling characters in recent fiction. Cynical yet naive, insightful yet oblivious, she is a wholly real person and draws us into her world and her experiences as she comes of age as an adult. As she enters university, she watches her longtime friends Fallon, Collie, and Gaynor drawing away from her, changing and developing tastes and interests completely different from her own, and finds her best friends are not who she thought they were. And when "the Troubles" violently hit home for Una, she slowly discovers the truth behind the long-held secrets in her family, and her life suddenly becomes enmeshed in that conflict. But all of these changes become secondary when she meets Aidan Ferrel, a draughtsman from the North, who sweeps her off her feet with his self-depricating charm and adoration of her. Una believes she has found true love and begins to plan her future with the man who, in her eyes, is perfection. Of course, Una then finds out she doesn't quite know everything she thought she did about Aidan. Moran's deft writing moves the book along at a swift pace, and the interest never sags. This is a thoroughly engrossing, enjoyable, and ultimately heartbreaking read.
Rating:
Summary: A hauntingly beautiful and heartbreaking story
Review: Although the title may indicate "Water, Carry Me" is a love story, it is, in fact, so much more. Set against the backdrop of a divided Ireland, the novel tracks a few years in the life of Una Moss, the book's fascinating narrator, as she rides the turbulent waves of her early 20's. Orphaned at eight and raised by her grandfather Rawney in Cobh, County Cork, Una is perhaps one of the most interesting and compelling characters in recent fiction. Cynical yet naive, insightful yet oblivious, she is a wholly real person and draws us into her world and her experiences as she comes of age as an adult. As she enters university, she watches her longtime friends Fallon, Collie, and Gaynor drawing away from her, changing and developing tastes and interests completely different from her own, and finds her best friends are not who she thought they were. And when "the Troubles" violently hit home for Una, she slowly discovers the truth behind the long-held secrets in her family, and her life suddenly becomes enmeshed in that conflict. But all of these changes become secondary when she meets Aidan Ferrel, a draughtsman from the North, who sweeps her off her feet with his self-depricating charm and adoration of her. Una believes she has found true love and begins to plan her future with the man who, in her eyes, is perfection. Of course, Una then finds out she doesn't quite know everything she thought she did about Aidan. Moran's deft writing moves the book along at a swift pace, and the interest never sags. This is a thoroughly engrossing, enjoyable, and ultimately heartbreaking read.
Rating:
Summary: A hauntingly beautiful and heartbreaking story
Review: Although the title may indicate "Water, Carry Me" is a love story, it is, in fact, so much more. Set against the backdrop of a divided Ireland, the novel tracks a few years in the life of Una Moss, the book's fascinating narrator, as she rides the turbulent waves of her early 20's. Orphaned at eight and raised by her grandfather Rawney in Cobh, County Cork, Una is perhaps one of the most interesting and compelling characters in recent fiction. Cynical yet naive, insightful yet oblivious, she is a wholly real person and draws us into her world and her experiences as she comes of age as an adult. As she enters university, she watches her longtime friends Fallon, Collie, and Gaynor drawing away from her, changing and developing tastes and interests completely different from her own, and finds her best friends are not who she thought they were. And when "the Troubles" violently hit home for Una, she slowly discovers the truth behind the long-held secrets in her family, and her life suddenly becomes enmeshed in that conflict. But all of these changes become secondary when she meets Aidan Ferrel, a draughtsman from the North, who sweeps her off her feet with his self-depricating charm and adoration of her. Una believes she has found true love and begins to plan her future with the man who, in her eyes, is perfection. Of course, Una then finds out she doesn't quite know everything she thought she did about Aidan. Moran's deft writing moves the book along at a swift pace, and the interest never sags. This is a thoroughly engrossing, enjoyable, and ultimately heartbreaking read.
Rating:
Summary: You will love Derdriu Ring's voice!
Review: As a male who loves romance novels I instantly fell in love with Derdriu Rings Irish voice. I could listen to her for hours!!! But equally enjoyable and believable was the plot. You are never sure if its fiction or reality. Sad ending mimicing real life. This is the first Thomas Moran I have read and it will not be the last.
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